Fingos is a discontinued breakfast cereal snack from General Mills that lasted from 1993 to 1994. The cereal was advertised as a snack which confused consumers. The box was voiced in television commercials by comedian Steve Mackall.
Fingos was worked on for three or four years prior to its release in 1993. It was a cereal that was meant to be eaten with fingers as a snack and without milk. The cereal pieces were shaped as hexagons and were advertised as food that could be eaten at any time of the day. Analyst John McMillin said, "The idea here is to turn a cereal into a healthy snack" and that "it's a little like Pepsi and Coke trying to get people to consume their soft drinks in the morning." [1] Fingos were "lightly sweetened" and were released in one-serving bags or in boxes with the flavors being honey toasted oat and cinnamon. Each piece was "bigger than corn flakes but smaller than potato chips." [2] [3]
Consumers were confused by the marketing concept when Fingos were released due to it being advertised as a snack despite being in the cereal section. [3] Fingos were unsuccessful and were discontinued in 1994. [3]
The packaging for Fingos stated it was cereal and that it contained a similar number of calories to other breakfast cereal. Its packaging has "a wide grin depicting a person about to consume Fingos." General Mills had focus groups, in which 1% of the group ate the cereal with milk. [1] The company spent $34 million to advertise the cereal in 1993 and Multi-Grain Cheerios received similar treatment in 1992. [2] Posters were hung up in 32 large cities. [4] In order to have Fingos be kept secret from its competitors, General Mills used in-home research instead of releasing the cereal in test markets. [5]
Comedian Steve Mackall voiced the cereal box in television commercials and he based the voice off Robin Williams as the genie in the 1992 film Aladdin . The commercials were 15 or 30 seconds long and they were animated by Kurtz & Friends. [4] The box in the commercials would say, "How wholesome am I?" and "Read my hips" while showing the cereal's nutritional information. [3]
Lucky Charms is a brand of breakfast cereal produced by General Mills since 1964. The cereal consists of multi-colored marshmallows and pieces of shaped pulverized oat, each resembling one of several objects or symbols associated with good luck. The packaging and marketing features a leprechaun mascot, Lucky.
Breakfast cereal is a breakfast food made from processed cereal grains. It is traditionally eaten as part of breakfast, or a snack food, primarily in Western societies.
Cap'n Crunch is a corn and oat breakfast cereal manufactured since 1963 by Quaker Oats Company, a subsidiary of PepsiCo since 2001. Since the original product introduction, marketed simply as Cap'n Crunch, Quaker Oats has since introduced numerous flavors and seasonal variations, some for a limited time—and currently offers a Cap'n Crunch product line.
General Mills, Inc., is an American multinational manufacturer and marketer of branded processed consumer foods sold through retail stores. Founded on the banks of the Mississippi River at Saint Anthony Falls in Minneapolis, the company originally gained fame for being a large flour miller. Today, the company markets many well-known North American brands, including Gold Medal flour, Annie's Homegrown, Lärabar, Cascadian Farm, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Nature Valley, Totino's, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs, as well as breakfast cereals under the General Mills name, including Cheerios, Chex, Lucky Charms, Trix, Cocoa Puffs and Count Chocula and the other monster cereals.
The Kellogg Company is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toaster pastries, and markets their products by several well-known brands including Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Frosted Flakes, Pringles, Eggo, and Cheez-It. Kellogg's mission statement is "Nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive."
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Rice Krispies is a breakfast cereal, marketed by Kellogg's in 1927 and released to the public in 1928. Rice Krispies are made of crisped rice, and expand forming very thin and hollowed out walls that are crunchy and crisp. When milk is added to the cereal the walls tend to collapse, creating the "snap, crackle and pop" sounds.
Quisp is a sugar-sweetened breakfast cereal from the Quaker Oats Company. It was introduced in 1965 and continued as a mass-market grocery item until the late 1970s. Subsequently, the Quaker Oats Company marketed Quisp sporadically, and with the advent of the Internet, began selling it primarily online. Quisp made its return to supermarkets as a mass-market grocery item in late 2012.
Cheerios is a brand of cereal manufactured by General Mills in the United States and Canada, consisting of pulverized oats in the shape of a solid torus. In some countries, including the United Kingdom, Cheerios is marketed by Cereal Partners under the Nestlé brand; in Australia and New Zealand, Cheerios is sold as an Uncle Tobys product. It was first manufactured in 1941 as CheeriOats.
Wheaties is an American brand of breakfast cereal that is made by General Mills. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on its packages and has become a cultural icon in the United States. Originally introduced as Washburn's Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flakes in 1924, it is primarily a wheat and bran mixture baked into flakes.
A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television commercials; they can also be used in non-advertising contexts to establish or maintain a brand image. Many jingles are also created using snippets of popular songs, in which lyrics are modified to appropriately advertise the product or service.
Post Consumer Brands is an American consumer packaged goods food manufacturer headquartered in Lakeville, Minnesota.
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Alpha-Bits, also known as Frosted Alpha-Bits, was a brand of breakfast cereal made by Post Consumer Brands, which contained frosted alphabet-shaped multi-grain cereal bits. Post Cereals also started producing "Marshmallow Alpha-Bits" in 1990.
Puffed rice and popped rice are types of puffed grain made from rice commonly eaten in the traditional cuisines of Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia. It has also been produced commercially in the West since 1904 and is popular in breakfast cereals and other snack foods.
Chex Mix is a type of snack mix that includes Chex breakfast cereal as a major component.
The monster cereals are a line of breakfast cereals produced by General Mills Corporation in North America. The line was introduced in 1971 and, at various times, has included five brands, each featuring a cartoon version of a classic movie monster: Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo Berry, as well as Frute Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy with a sixth character Carmella Creeper introduced in 2023.
Stephen James "Steve" Mackall is a Canadian-American voice actor, voice-over announcer, comedian, director, screenwriter and songwriter. He was known as the voice of NBC's Must See TV, and performed voice of the lead character of Marsupilami in both the Disney animated television series Raw Toonage (1992) and Marsupilami (1993).
Nesquik is a brand of food products made by Swiss company Nestlé. In 1948, Nestlé launched a drink mix for chocolate-flavored milk called Nestlé Quik in the United States; this was released in Europe during the 1950s as Nesquik.
A meal is an eating occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The names used for specific meals in English vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal.
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